1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic device for shuffling and distributing playing cards.
2. Description of the Related Art
While playing card distributing devices have been proposed previously, they generally present a number of difficulties and problems. Typically, the prior card distributing devices are manually operated in that they must be started, operated and stopped by hand. In general, they employ a mode of operation in which a card is selected and pushed away partly from the deck, the card then being engaged and ejected by a separate spring-type of device. Such devices generally are mechanically complicated, are noisy and work relatively slow. In addition, they often do not operate properly when the cards have been used or slightly worn and, frequently, the devices tend to deteriorate rapidly and the condition of the cards, thus exaggerating the inherent difficulties. Most of the existing card distributing devices do not shuffle and the small percentages of those that do, do so by re-dealing the cards multiple times, which is time consuming.
In the inventions by Francoise Pic U.S. Pat. No. 4,033,590, and J. R. Stephenson U.S. Pat. No. 2,778,644, R. Gronnerberg U.S. Pat. No. 3,131,935, and Frank A. Mazar U.S. Pat. No. 3,666,270, the distribution of cards is not reliable because sometimes the ejector device doesn't eject the engaged card and sometimes it pulls out two cards at a time. This is the main reason for not finding these devices on the market. None of the above-mentioned patens work in the same efficient and improved manner as current invention. In the current invention, in one embodiment, the card magazine, which is tilted to a predefined angle, is pivotally rotating, which allows the ejector device to reliably pull a single card every time the ejector engages the cards. The magazine is pushed back to its original position by a spring located behind the card magazine—this makes the current invention much more reliable that any other related invention on the market. In another embodiment, of the present invention, a user holds in one hand and by pressing on on switch the device automatically ejects the topmost card to the location that the user aimed to, which makes this device portable and it doesn't take room from the playing area.
It is among the primary objects of the invention to provide an improved automatic playing card shuffling and ejection device which avoids the foregoing and other difficulties.
Another object of the invention is to provide a clear playing area without removing the system. One of the embodiments is located underneath the playing plate and the other embodiment reuses the existing playing area. Other dealing systems must be removed to provide clean playing area for the players which make it very cumbersome and inefficient to use.
Other objects, advantages and features of the present invention will become more apparent upon reading of the following non-restrictive description of preferred embodiments thereof, given by the way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings.